white christmas!

last year we had snow and i really wanted to call our christmas "white christmas" but everyone was sick off and on, so the biggest part of christmas was the sickness! but THIS year actually was a white christmas!! it snowed on christmas day!! something that hasn't happened it years! but i am getting ahead of myself... there is a lot that happened before christmas.

to get the kids out of the house on a cold day, we headed to bounce n play (i think that is what it was called. it is just like monkey joes) of course the kids had a blast!!we went back to the fire station again this year. although it was a totally different crew they were still very nice and helpful. the kids enjoyed seeing the trucks and the uniforms!they made christmas ornaments. nana collected little pine cones. we glued them and the kids decorated them with sparkles! fun times!then on christmas eve we went out to lunch and then on to the candle light service.we got one of the girls by the tree...(i had to use the flash...ugh)MERRY CHRISTMAS!

you will have to wait for the next post to see chrismas morning....

pre-Christmas recap...

since i haven't updated in a little while, i missed some exciting activities that happened pre-christmas.
first we made marsh mellow snowmen. we never got around to making cookies, but the snowmen were fun and tasty!

building the snowmenshowing off the finished product!

the weekend before christmas we went to raleigh for a special cinderella play. mini invited the big girls and myself to come up for the day. the play was a lot of fun. it was like the movie, but different enough to be interesting. the girls really enjoyed it!!
we drove up in the morning, went to the play, ate lunch/dinner (saw some snow!) and drove back. it was a long but super fun day!!

brooke watching
(of course sucking her fingers! ugh!)a couple of shots of the show...
shhh don't tell you, aren't supposed to take pictures of the show!mimi and the girls at dinner

thanks for taking us to the show mimi!!

party time :)

since today was the last day of school before christmas break, for both girls, it was party day. i spent my morning running back and forth between the 2 parties :)
i dropped brooke off at preschool then headed back to hana's school. they had a unit studying christmas celebrations around the world. the parents came in and the kids showed them all about the countries they had studied. it was very cute ;) and very well put together...

hana making a dreidel

telling other kids about sweden

then i headed back to brooke's preschool to watch her christmas performance. it was very cute... except for one small mishap :(

madeline pre-performance madeline throwing a fit at the church... nice
yep... even after having 3 kids they still throw fits!brooke found methen spotted daddy and madeline...
about a second after i took this, she got a little over zealous in her waving and toppled face first off of the risers. very sad.post fallshe recovered in time for snacks (note the red cheek)madeline found something to entertain her... dipping crackers in ranch and licking off the dip, then repeating...
she is certainly not MY child ;0) i would never do that :0)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

gingerbread house

every year the girls and i make christmas cookies (which will still may), but today we branched out and made a gingerbread house. i have never made one... it was a learning experience to say the least. but i think the girls enjoyed decorating it!

put together, but not decorated :)decorating...
finished!poorly constructed ;(

like i said... it was my first year! next year we will follow the directions and wait 15 minutes before we decorate!
now, it is fixed and looking good!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Welcome Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas! i look forward to it for a good part of the year. i love the decorations... the music... just all of it! i start listening to christmas music right after halloween.
so when it is time to officially start christmas, i like to do it as soon as possible ;) we got our tree tuesday night. the only downer was that it was 70 degrees. hardly tree picking out weather! oh well... it is certainly cold enough NOW for christmas!

picking out the treeour tree ;)

this was the first year i let the girls do a whole box of decorations by themselves...they did seem to want to put them all in one place ;)the final product!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Thanksgiving :)

thanksgiving has come and gone, which is always hard for me to believe. the older i get, the fast it seems to go!
we had a great time ;) our time in greensboro included cooking, eating, shopping, running, playing, eating, and having a great family time!
the house was full with nana and poppy, my sister, her husband and 2 kids, nanny, and us ;)

all of the kids swinging ;)there was lots of cooking... hana helped to make some of the pies.the whole fam on thanksgiving day

madeline liked the necklacesthe kids rode with nana on the lawn mower (we are not rednecks! i promise!)more cooking after thanksgiving the kids make cookies ;)

every time steven edward ate a pile of dough he would say "i won't do that again" :)

brooke did the best job of cutting out the cookies ;)sam did get a little messymadeline watching (you can see on her tray that she did get to eat some)all the kiddos

i ran in the greensboro gobbler on thanksgiving morning... the race was so much more hilly than i am used to... but that is ok. it is always nice to have a change. my time was 27:24 much better than my first two 5ks ;)

hana and i pre racedo you see me??
on the right... blue shirt with black capri pants and no red hat

on saturday we headed to raleigh to visit mimi. we had a yummy dinner and the kids got to play at a nearby park. they had a blast! i wish i had brought my camera!!

now it is time for christmas!! we got our tree! that post to come soon!